The Opelousas courier., 1887-12-17
IUGGERNAUT's DOOM.
Decline of the Once Famous
Festival in India.
Idols Victims to the Human
Ponderous Car.

The announcement that the once fa-
nous festival of Juggernaut has so de-
clined in popularity as to render it ~
essary for the priests to hire coolies to
drag the car is q measure of the extent
to which the destructive solvent OF
Western thought is being applied to
Eastern creeds. The car of the great
god of Poorce was one of the most So
cred of Brahmanic properties" and
Rath J~attra, a festival which, in i'm
p~ortance, yielded to that of no other
deity in the Hindoo pantheon. From
part of the vast empire of Hindostan
pilgrims iocked to share in il, and
when the car of Jugger5aut was dragged
once a year from the temple in order
to battle the gods in the cold
water of the tank, a mile and o half dis
tant, the widest enthusiasm seized the
vast multitude of devotees. Thousands
rushed to seize the cables, and so eager
were the volunteers of his holy service
that the best and greatest men of Orissa
struggled with each other to OBTAIN a
hold upon the ropes. To use t h Ian
guage of an old writer who witnessed
the Rath Jattra in Its palmy days, ''they
are so greedy and eager to draw it that
whosoever, by shouldering, crowdfng,
showing, heaying, thrusting, or in any
insolent way, can lay a hand upon the
rope, think themselves blessed and
happy. And when it is going along
the city there are many that will offer
themselves as a sacrifice to the idol, and
desperately lie down on the ground that
the chariot wheels may run over them,
whereby they are killed outright. Some
get broken arms, some broken legs, SO
that many are destroyed and think to
merit heaven"
At even a later date martyrs to Jug
gernaut, or Jagganna'th, as she is more
correctly termed, were not infrequent.
When Francis Buchanan was in Pooree
carly in this century he described the
harsh grating of the gigantic car as it
moved along, the obscene songs of the
priests in honor of the god, and the
fierce chances which the fanatics be-
slowed upon the beef-eating English
men as a pilgrim announced himself
ready to become a sacrifice to the idol.
No one daring or caring to prevent the
self immolation, the matt Frustrated
himself in front of the towea as it moved
along lying on his face with his arms
stretched forward. The multitude
passed around him, leaving the space
clear until he was crushed to death by
the wheels of the ponderous structure.
Then a wild cry of praise was raised,
and, as the god was seen to s'smile" at
the libation OF spouting blood, the de-
voices threw cowries and pieces of
money on the body of the victim in APP
| probation of the holy deed by which he
! hr} wan immortality in the Hindoo
| Wallalla.
1t is, therefore, suggestive of a strange
revolution in Hindoo opinion to hear
that not only are victims lacking, but
that, Instead OF thousands struggling
for the honor Of a place at the drag
ropes, laboring men, at SC many anna
per diem, have to be hired to perform
the sacred function. The awe of the
Indian people for stthe lord of the world
tllas been declining. For many year:
past the fame of the great god of 0risss
hes been on the Wane, and the time
when a E1man sacrifice was deliberately
offered up to the hideous idol is fast get.
ting beyond the power Of the very old
est Of old Indians to recall. Admitting
that the number of devotees thiSyear il
smaller, owing to the loss of two pill
grim ships and the prophecy that a third
will be wrecked before the year is out,
it is undeniable that Jagganna'th i
doomed, and the wealth which j
brought to the priests and the towns
people Of Pooree is likely to vanish be
fore many years apse.[London Stand
ard.